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Stringing together love, encouragement

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It's hard to imagine a sight more emotionally powerful - heart-breaking and inspirational at the same time - than a 10-year-old girl with a 15-foot string of beads in her hands.

Captain Joey Mormina and his wife Anne were part of a contingent of Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins players and their wives and girlfriends who had that experience on a recent trip to Geisinger Janet Weis Children's Hospital in Danville.

They met patients involved with Beads of Courage, a program that works with children fighting serious illnesses. Kids receive a bead for each milestone in their treatment - one for a chemotherapy session, one for having blood taken, one for a spinal tap, one for spending a night away from their families.

The beads help kids track and celebrate their progress while also reminding them that if they've made it through one procedure, and have the bead to prove it, they can make it through the next procedure as well.

"It was pretty amazing to see kids with a tremendous amount of courage and a will to live," Mormina said. "We complain about a lot of things at our house and in daily life. When you see those kids, it really puts things in perspective to see how they approach every day."

Penguins players will wear two beads on a safety pin during warm-ups before Saturday's home game with Albany. Players will keep one of the beads as a memento and deliver the other to program participants with a note of encouragement.

Penguins wives and girlfriends will also be selling beads with the team's logo for a suggested donation of $5 on the arena concourse.

Back in time

It's one of the cheesiest tricks in sports journalism - right up there with noting that Pocono Raceway or Beaver Stadium would be the third-largest city in Pennsylvania on days where the venues are packed with fans - but here it goes anyway.

On Wednesday night, Tom Kostopoulos scored his first regular-season goal as a member of the home team at the Mohegan Sun Arena in almost 10 years. His last goal at the building came Nov. 2, 2003 against Worcester.

Back then, George W. Bush was in his first term as president, gas cost $1.75 a gallon and the No. 1 album on the Billboard chart was "Measure of a Man," the debut record by American Idol season two runner-up Clay Aiken.

A matter of right and left

The way the Penguins lined up for practice Thursday, it looks like they'll have two right-handed shots - Chad Kolarik and Tom Kostopoulos - playing the wings on the top line and two left-handed shots - Riley Holzapfel and Brian Gibbons - playing the wings on the second line.

That's something coach John Hynes tries to avoid only if the player asked to play on his off-wing doesn't like it.

"It depends on the player and where they feel comfortable," coach John Hynes said. "Some guys feel more comfortable on their off wing. They like it better. They get different opportunities offensively there. Normally we would talk to guys about it and find out if guys feel comfortable or not. If not, then we wouldn't do it."

End of the road

It's easy to lose track of this fact, probably because the NHL just started its season about a month ago, but the AHL season is nearing the home stretch.

Tonight's visit from the Hershey Bears to the Mohegan Sun Arena really puts that in perspective. It will be the 11th of 12 meetings between the intrastate rivals this season.

"At the end of this weekend, you're under 20 games," Hynes said. "We realize it is crunch time."

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